1978

January ??- Rehearsing and demoing in Co Kildare

Trinity gig poster

11 - Trinity College, Dublin

12 - Trinity College, Dublin

"After the sound was sorted out, Trinity's JCR saw a professional, confident, and often exciting band in action...Phil's onstage presence is now commanding, with facial expressions and poses most like Willy De Ville.

Like the latter, Phil oozes charisma free of any sham. His distorted delivery of 'Blitzin' At The Ritz' is amusing and enthralling, and his "off-the-wall" guitar solos reminiscent of Dave Davies' finer moments on early Kinks records.

Who could ask for more? Mark's bass playing demands nothing short of superlatives...one of the finest bass players in Ireland. His lines are both inventive and powerful, supplying a melodic depth to the Rads' sound that most groups, both within and out of the New wave, never approach.

'Million Dollar Hero' is an absolute gem, with the band exploring vocal harmonies to a fuller extent than before, and mixing it with their already proven talent for writing songs with irresistible chorus/hooks.The Radiators stand now as both one of the most accomplished and promising bands on the road anywhere, not merely in Ireland." Karl Tsigdinos/ Hot Press Jan 28

14 - Arcadia, Cork

?? - Recording Million Dollar Hero and Walking Home Alone Again singles with Tony Visconti at Good Earth Studios in London's Soho

Headlining UK tour:

20 - Barbarella's, Birmingham

21 - Barbarella's, Birmingham

23 - Music Machine, London

27 - Lafeyette, Wolverhampton

28 - Eric's, Liverpool

February 2 - Mr George's, Coventry

3 - Rock Garden, Middlesborough

4 - P.G.'s, Harrowgate

7 - Nikker's Keighley

9 - Outlook, Doncaster

11 - J.B's, Dudley

13 - Top of the World, Stafford

15 - Sheffield Poly

?16 - Rafters, Manchester

?16 - Troubadour, Port Talbot

17 - Bedford College, London

19 - Roundhouse, London (Recorded for "Live" album, finally to be released as ALIVE-ALIVE-O! 1996)

23 - Mr Digby's, Birkenhead

?? - Middlesex Poly, London

24 - New Regent, Brighton

25 - City Hall, St Albans

26 - Chancellor Hall, Chelmsford

28 - Nikker's, Keighley

March / April - The Radiators spend most of these weeks writing, rehearsing and demoing the material that would become their second album, Ghostown, at a studio in Covent Garden, London.

April 7 - Marquee, London

17 - London University

28 - Million Dollar Hero single released

"One of those 24-carat melodies that has to be a hit" NME

"Lifts the band out of last year's new wave innovators bracket and into the pop stars of tomorrow league" Sounds

"If there's justice, it'll chart" Record Mirror

"The single of the summer...a new epoch in the Radiators story...This should be a complete and utter chart smash. For me the summer of '78 will always be epitomised by 'Million Dollar Hero' Hot Press

May / July - The Radiators are ensconced in Good Earth Studios, London, with producer Tony Visconti, working guests include saxman Ruan O'Lochlainn, singer Mary Hopkin and a string section.

Throughout the summer, meanwhile, Chiswick Records respond to the on/off/on again performance of the Million Dollar Hero 45 with a new radio version and in September, as it finally makes the playlists, re-releases it with a new mix and new edits. All to no avail. In the process, the scheduled release of Walking Home Alone Again is cancelled.

October 31 - Electric Ballroom, London (support is Stiff Little Fingers) with extra guitarist Billy Morley (who'd been in Greta Garbage and the Trashcans with Steve and Pete in 1975) on board, The Rads showcase the new Ghostown material. Disillusioned by the punk audience's utter rejection of its new - and best - tunes, the band never really recovered from this setback, and in fact this proved to be their last ever concert in the UK.

"If there is a lesson to be learned from last Tuesday's performance at the Electric, it is simply that the band's music has progressed so dramatically that they must now fiind an audience to appreciate it. The audience was having so many bombs dropped on it that they probably still suffering from shellshock."

Harry Doherty/ Melody Maker Nov 11

December 27 - The Gem, Droheda

28 - Arcadia, Cork

29 - El Ruedo, Carlow

30 - Chester's, Portrush

31 - Manhattan Bar, Galway

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1979

January 1 - McGonagles, Dublin (Afternoon / Evening)

6 - Mark Megaray and Billy Morley leave the Radiators, casualties of the growing disillusionment and business troubles surrounding the band

? - The Meanies (a conglomerate of Radiators and Horslips) play a one-off gig at McGonagles, Dublin

March 19-28 - Agnes Bernelle, The Radiators and Charles Barber share the stage for a short season of the caberet, BLACK CHAMPAGNE at the Ambassadors Theatre in London's West End

20 - A single, Kitty Ricketts is released by Mulligan Records (the Radiators new label in Ireland) by Agnes Bernelle and The Radiators to coincide with the west end appearance

June 23 - After a series of postponements caused by Chiswick's financial difficulties, the Ghostown material begins to emerge in public with the release of the single Let's Talk About The Weather

"A provocative and potent single...an immensely impressive achievement and a pointer to an album of heavy proportions"

Liam Mackey/ Hot Press Jul 27

Throughout June, July and August the album is trailered with a series of ten different Steve Averill (Stephen Rapid) -designed ad's in the music press (to view ads goto archive page)

August 10 - Ghostown is finally released

"Without exception the material is excellent, a collection of artful pop guaranteed to stamp its class on the memory banks...still remains, after all these months, a teenage classic"

Harry Doherty/ Melody Maker Aug 11

."It's a monumental achievement in in rock, possibly the most significant Irish rock album ever...it's greatness lies partly in the fact that it's not purely dismissive, that it explores aspect of what its challenging and in doing so discovers a language which is all the more moving for the associations it evokes"

Niall Stokes/ Hot Press

31 - The Band's own version of Kitty Ricketts is released as a 45

September ?? Recording demos of new songs in Pimlico, London

October 10 - With Chevron in Dublin for the premier of his first musical " The Ha'penny Place" (written with playwright and future film director Jim Sheridan) Holidai and Crashe join him to tape a performance of three Ghostown numbers for RTE's Our Times

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